It wasn't difficult to find the staff quarters.
The teachers, too, seemed to be walking around in groups of two or three.
The two of us kept a safe distance as we followed after them, and then hid and waited in a supply closet nearby for them to leave for their next class.
Peering through the cracked door, I counted five… no, six people leave after the bell dinged again.
We waited for a few more minutes, and when the coast was clear, walked up to the door of the room.
I immediately looked in through the dingy glass panel in the middle, then stepped back with a small sigh.
'There's still three people in there…' I muttered to Aron.
Aron frowned.
Then, without any warning, he suddenly started yelling his head off.
'Holy shit! Holy shit! They're going crazy by the third-floor bathrooms! He's saying he's gonna set the building on fire!'
He jumped in place a couple of times, and then stomped his feet to make it sound like he was running past the door while still screaming.
'No one's there to stop him! We're all gonna die!'
Then, he grabbed my arm and ran with quick, light steps back to the supply closet where we'd been hiding.
The moment he pulled the doors in, the one leading to the staff quarters was thrown open.
'What's this now?' a woman was muttering worriedly. 'We can't let the Director find out!'
'Today of all days, with that fucker being of no help too!' exclaimed a man's voice. 'They're all losing their damn minds!'
Two hurried sets of footsteps raced past where we waited in hiding.
After they turned the corner of the corridor, I turned to Aron.
'That's just two people.'
'Thanks, genius. I noticed.' He rolled his eyes.
He was frowning.
'But surely,' I continued, 'They wouldn't have left the third staff member alone in there. Not with the survival rule being what they are. They seemed rather worried about the director learning that things are spiraling out of control. I doubt they'd want to come back to a fresh corpse in their quarters. So that probably means…'
'That means he's not alone in there.'
Aron's frown deepened.
'Come on, newbie.'
I nodded, and the two of us carefully entered the staff quarters.
Inside sat an older man, slumped over his desk with his head resting in his hands.
Aron and I looked at each other, then walked over to the man cautiously.
It was only when we'd nearly reached him that we also noticed the woman curled up on the floor by another desk. She also seemed to be in a stupor of some kind. Her eyes were shut.
Looks like the teachers weren't immune to breaking under the pressure of whatever was going on either.
Aron silently signaled that he was going to go take a look at some of the filing cabinets on the far side.
I nodded, then turned my attention to the drawers of the individual desks, starting from the one farthest away from where the two people were.
As silently as I could, I slid the first one open.
Syllabus printouts and junk.
The second one.
Thick books with sticky tabs.
Third.
Empty.
…Maybe I should've gone to the filing cabinets as well.
Still, I persisted until I reached the fifth desk, just one spot away from where the two staff members were.
I'd noticed this before, but a couple of these desks seemed like they hadn't been in use for a few days. Maybe weeks. There was a light smattering of dust on some of the surfaces.
This fifth desk was one of them.
In the lowermost drawer, under a sheaf of random notes and schedules, I final hit jackpot. There was a worn, well-used book there, pushed to the very back.
It was a diary.
Judging by the number of pages that had been written in, I'd guess the writer had been using it for well over a year by this point.
As I flipped through the pages, I saw, written in beautiful cursive, snippets of the records of the regular life of a young teacher.
'Rainy weather today. All my printouts were soaked. :-( I'll have to bring newer ones for my students tomorrow.'
'Been raining all week. The weather matches my mood. These kids don't seem to respect me at all! Is it because I'm still young? I swear, I'm going to send in an application to that all-girls school once I'm done with this internship. I think they'll be nicer.'
'Cloudy today. I have a meeting with the Director later in the day. He's intimidating, but that commands respect! In my free time, I've started working on learning French again. :-)'
I skipped past a large number of pages until I spotted something interesting.
'…He keeps insisting he's not being bullied, but I see the way the other kids look at him. It's so odd that such a large school doesn't even have a counselor!'
'Sunny today. He offered me his umbrella to use as a parasol, and told me I shouldn't let anyone know it was his. He said that'll make it worse for me. Looks like I have no value as an educator…'
'Sunny. Clear skies. That kid didn't turn in his assignment again. He said he forgot, but I remember seeing him working on it during the free hour. This is all going too far. No one else seems to want to listen. I'm going to put in a request for an appointment with the Director.'
'…so, of course that monster would call it simple roughhousing! Apparently, it was an open secret that the ringleader's his grandson. I was the only damn fool who knew nothing!'
'Classes are done for the day. I'm going to write to Clara. She has far more experience than I do. She'll know what to do about this.'
'Sunny today. It feels like the others have started shunning me too, now. I have moments when I want to just keep my head down and let it all blow over. I have to keep reminding myself that I became an educator to help kids!
After skipping past a few more pages, there was a noticeable decline in the quality of the handwriting.
'…I've heard the most terrible rumors…'
'Someone stole my binder today...'
'I'm getting so sick of this. I've been crying myself to sleep. I wonder when Clara will respond…'
'…Did I mess up?'
'That bitch…'
My heart skipped a beat at the sound of those words.
Crouched by the drawers, I'd been so engrossed in the contents of the diary that I hadn't been paying attention to my surroundings.
I hadn't noticed when the woman who'd been lying by her desk had gotten up and crawled over to me. She was on her knees, her head above mine as she, too, bent over and read the words on the pages.
For a moment, I could only stare wordlessly at her. Strands of greasy hair hung down and framed her face that was twisted into an almost inhuman grimace.
She wasn't even looking at me. Her eyes, smudged with old mascara, were fixed on the diary in my hands.
'So that little bitch knew she was causing trouble,' the woman snarled. 'Who the fuck asked her to play hero!? She should've just gone and fucking died by herself!'
Her hand suddenly swiped at the book, as though to grab it.
I immediately fell back, just barely managing to save it from her reach. I leaped to my feet, glancing worriedly at the other staff member.
The man continued sitting slumped at his desk.
I jumped out of the way when the woman, who'd pushed herself unsteadily to her feet, tried to grab the diary again. Unsuccessful, she growled and ran at me.
In the next moment, she tripped over the drawer I had left open.
Thunk- BANG!
She crashed to the floor with a shriek.
'Let's go!'
Aron had come over at the sound of the commotion.
I noticed his torso appeared oddly flat and stiff underneath his tucked shirt, and realized he must've nicked a few files from the cabinets he was raiding. I quickly stuffed the diary into my pocket.
'Quick, newbie.'
We raced to the door, only to freeze.
Over the groaning of the fallen woman, we could clearly hear the sound of two sets of footsteps in the corridor outside. They were fast approaching the staff quarters.
Those two teachers were returning!
There wouldn't be enough time to hide in that supply closet!
Aron cursed, then pulled me towards the large windows by the cabinets at the back.
'C'mon,' was all he said before vaulting over the sill.
I could only watch as he plummeted out of sight.
Then, I heard the door handle turn from the outside, and decided I could do more than watch.
I quickly ran over, and glanced down to see him crouching down on a jutting ledge right underneath the open window. He must've made note of it while he was examining things on this side of the room.
He'd already moved to one side, leaving the spot right underneath me free.
I didn't wait any longer.
Bracing my weight on the sill, I pushed off the floor and down onto the ledge outside in one smooth motion.
Unfortunately, my body hadn't managed to fully clear the window when I heard a sharp voice ask, 'What's going on here?'